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Myomectomy Recovery
This is a discussion on Myomectomy Recovery within the Fibroids forums, part of the Trying to Conceive - Health issues category; Hi there - I am brand new to this site and have read through many of the posted messages.
My husband ...
Hi there - I am brand new to this site and have read through many of the posted messages.
My husband and I found out that we had some obstacles to overcome prior to attempting to get pregnant. I had two fibroids and have a high FSH level, so my egg production is rather low.
I had an abdominal myomectomy on Jan 22nd and am home recovering. I was in the hospital for two days and have been home since. I was given six weeks off from work and am going absolutely stir crazy already. I thought I was on the road to recovery until today and I just feel terrible. My question for those of you with experience in this area is: did your recovery period have roller coasters of good and bad days? I finally had a BM today - not quite as much passed as I had hoped - and I am now incredibly gassy.
Just trying to get my hands around what to anticipate in the next five weeks at home.
I hope you are feeling better. I recall my 8 week bed rest was pretty much that- bedrest. I watched a lot of home decorating shows during that time. I took it as a mini vacation - relaxed and enjoyed the time. I didn't have to cook or clean or anything. My dh hired a cleaning crew to come in. So I suggest staying off your feet as much as you can- because if you do too much you will feel it. Your incision area will be very tender.
It was 2000 when I had mine and a lot of the details are getting fuzzy. I do think some days were better than others. But I do think the first 4-6 weeks were pretty rough. Tiring and sore. I was on the pain killers for a while.
When can you ttc again? I had to wait 10 months to try again- lots of fibroids removed and they wanted me to be strong enough to handle a pregnancy.
I wish you the best of luck. Please feel free to ask questions and just chat if you like. I usually check the board daily.
Hi - You are right, it has been two weeks and my pain sorta comes and goes. I was told to not do any housework and to just sit in my recliner. I am not too crazy about sitting still - a bit of a type A personality - and it is hard to be away from work for such a long time (six weeks total) - I am a teacher. I have read lots of books, watched good movies, and learned to crochet. I have had lots of visitors which is great, too.
We have been ttc for one year. When I was referred to the fertility clinic, we found that I had two fibroids and they needed to be removed through an abdominal myomectomy. My FSH is rather high, which means my egg production is low. We are just hopeful that with hormone injections and IUI, we will be able to conceive. We can start the next step in March, which isn't that far away considering 12 months of disappointment, you know?
Were both of your pregnancies (with your beautiful boys - what a great photo) rather 'normal'? Did you need to go on bedrest prior to giving birth? Did you have a c section for your surgery and for your births?
Thanks for replying - as helpful as my DH is - having someone out there who has gone through a similar situation is helpful. Tomorrow is my first preop appt, hopefully I am progressing as they had hoped.
It took me a few days to get to this point, but I finally was able to post a response. I waited b/c this is important. I am a nurse and had a myomectomy August 6th. I was home by August 8th. Everything was going well. My doc removed 24 fibroids and also taped my surgery and gave me a take home copy. Anyway I experienced most the same issues of most. I was given motrin 800mg every 6 hours for pain only. This is b/c narcotics causes constipation. I did not need that. It worked well. My doctor put a device in my incision during surgery. The "medicine ball" had a pain medication that was released very slowly over two days. The medication went from the ball, down a tube and from the tube, into my incision. It worked so well that I only asked for pain meds twice while in the hospital. After two weeks I was concerned b/c I was not having normal bowel movements. My doctor encouraged milk of magnesia. It helped tremendosly with gas and bloating. After four weeks I can tell that my bowels were slowly waking up. I wish someone would have told me how long and painful that would be. I basically had what is called an illeus. That is when the bowels do not move. The bowels are supposed to be moving all the time. I guess at times they would awake and move some, but I went from having an illeus to having IBS (irriatable bowel syndrome). It was awful. Finally my stomach was better, but the small intestines were not. Then when the small intestines were better, my colon , the large intestine was not. Then when my large intestine was better, my rectum was not. I am glad to say that today was the first day (9/15/2007) that I had a normal bowel movement. All of the spasms and pain were gone. I cannot believe that it took almost 6 weeks for my body to get better. The most important point I want to share is that as my bowels were healling, some of the muscles deep in my pelvic were having issues. I always had this pressure in my pelvic area. Walking did not make it better. It felt like my bottom was going to fall out. It was better when I started kegel exercises. A kegel is the name of a pelvic floor exercise, named after Dr. Kegel who discovered the exercise. These muscles are attached to the pelvic bone and act like a hammock, holding in your pelvic organs. To try and isolate these muscles trying stopping and starting the flow of urine. Once I started that, the pressure started to leave, but not totally. Since I used to exercise before the surgery, my body began to yearn for it. I had an urge to sit on my exercise bench, put my feet on the push out on the foot bar and began doing those leg exercises. The pressure was better immediately. I did that exercise five times a day of three reps of 8. If you visit the url site below, you will see the muscle I was refereing to. My friends asked my why doctors don't tell this to their patients. I think that since most of the doc are male, they just don't know. That is why I want to share this. I did wait for my two visits with my doc before doing these exercises. I had two post-op visits after four weeks. I told my sister that I was so desperate that I was going to lie under my treadmill track because it is the fold up type and let the track rest on my feet while I push the track up and down. I really wanted to exercise that kegel muscle. Well that is dangerous and I am glad that I found a way to do the exercise on my other equipment. I have a friend who is post-op week 8 and is still not better. She had the same complaints with the pressue. I shared with her the kegel information. Anyway good luck and I hope that this helps someone.
Nurse from New Orleans, La.
Look at the image of the Pelvic Floor Muscle. Paste the url in your browser.
Hi there - I am brand new to this site and have read through many of the posted messages.
My husband and I found out that we had some obstacles to overcome prior to attempting to get pregnant. I had two fibroids and have a high FSH level, so my egg production is rather low.
I had an abdominal myomectomy on Jan 22nd and am home recovering. I was in the hospital for two days and have been home since. I was given six weeks off from work and am going absolutely stir crazy already. I thought I was on the road to recovery until today and I just feel terrible. My question for those of you with experience in this area is: did your recovery period have roller coasters of good and bad days? I finally had a BM today - not quite as much passed as I had hoped - and I am now incredibly gassy.
Just trying to get my hands around what to anticipate in the next five weeks at home.
It took me a few days to get to this point, but I finally was able to post a response. I waited b/c this is important. I am a nurse and had a myomectomy August 6th. I was home by August 8th. Everything was going well. My doc removed 24 fibroids and also taped my surgery and gave me a take home copy. Anyway I experienced most the same issues of most. I was given motrin 800mg every 6 hours for pain only. This is b/c narcotics causes constipation. I did not need that. It worked well. My doctor put a device in my incision during surgery. The "medicine ball" had a pain medication that was released very slowly over two days. The medication went from the ball, down a tube and from the tube, into my incision. It worked so well that I only asked for pain meds twice while in the hospital. After two weeks I was concerned b/c I was not having normal bowel movements. My doctor encouraged milk of magnesia. It helped tremendosly with gas and bloating. After four weeks I can tell that my bowels were slowly waking up. I wish someone would have told me how long and painful that would be. I basically had what is called an illeus. That is when the bowels do not move. The bowels are supposed to be moving all the time. I guess at times they would awake and move some, but I went from having an illeus to having IBS (irriatable bowel syndrome). It was awful. Finally my stomach was better, but the small intestines were not. Then when the small intestines were better, my colon , the large intestine was not. Then when my large intestine was better, my rectum was not. I am glad to say that today was the first day (9/15/2007) that I had a normal bowel movement. All of the spasms and pain were gone. I cannot believe that it took almost 6 weeks for my body to get better. The most important point I want to share is that as my bowels were healling, some of the muscles deep in my pelvic were having issues. I always had this pressure in my pelvic area. Walking did not make it better. It felt like my bottom was going to fall out. It was better when I started kegel exercises. A kegel is the name of a pelvic floor exercise, named after Dr. Kegel who discovered the exercise. These muscles are attached to the pelvic bone and act like a hammock, holding in your pelvic organs. To try and isolate these muscles trying stopping and starting the flow of urine. Once I started that, the pressure started to leave, but not totally. Since I used to exercise before the surgery, my body began to yearn for it. I had an urge to sit on my exercise bench, put my feet on the push out on the foot bar and began doing those leg exercises. The pressure was better immediately. I did that exercise five times a day of three reps of 8. If you visit the url site below, you will see the muscle I was refereing to. My friends asked my why doctors don't tell this to their patients. I think that since most of the doc are male, they just don't know. That is why I want to share this. I did wait for my two visits with my doc before doing these exercises. I had two post-op visits after four weeks. I told my sister that I was so desperate that I was going to lie under my treadmill track because it is the fold up type and let the track rest on my feet while I push the track up and down. I really wanted to exercise that kegel muscle. Well that is dangerous and I am glad that I found a way to do the exercise on my other equipment. I have a friend who is post-op week 8 and is still not better. She had the same complaints with the pressue. I shared with her the kegel information. Anyway good luck and I hope that this helps someone.
Nurse from New Orleans, La.
Look at the image of the Pelvic Floor Muscle. Paste the url in your browser.
Oh I forgot to add that vitamins help also. I took a women's multivitamin and a vitamin B complex everyday. It helped with energy levels and healing. And speaking of healing, I had a nail that grow in two pieces. I tried everything to stop it from splitting. Well the vitamins cleared it up. Who knew. My mom was right. Well I guess I don't need my Flintstone's chewable vitamins, but I do need my women's one a day and b complex. LOL.
Hi,
I am 28 and I have a family history of fibroids, my mother had them. She got her hysterectomy done 5 months ago at the age of 53. When I told this to my PCP, she recommended getting an untrasound done. In ultrasound it was found that I do have atleast 2 fibroids. The pedunculated one which is outside the uterus is 10 cm big and the other one is intramural and 1.8 cm big. Two days ago I met a OB/GYN and she recommended open myomectomy. Does somebody know in what cases myomectomy is performed and in what cases laproscopy? Laproscopy has a shorter recovery time so why is that not perfomed instead of myomectomy? Another benefit of laproscopy is one can start to ttc sooner than after myomectomy. I want to start ttc as soon as possible but with mymectomy I'll have to wait for at least an year.
I'm not 100% sure but I believe a myomectomy is performed when the fibroids are pretty big or embedded in the uterus. That may be too much for a lap. It requires an incision and more work to remove than a lap would be.
GOOD LUCK! I always say if you want kids...these surgeries are worth it. I'd never have my children without them.
I was freaking out and trying to get 2nd, 3rd, 4th opinion... Thanks for your response & encouragement. I am still freaking out but am better!
I have two fibroids, one outside the uterus and its huge - 10 cm and the other one 1.8 cm and embedded in the uterus. Did you have a similar case and how long after the surgery were you able to concieve? was that natural concieving or IVF?
I had the myomectomy in 2001 and got pg in 2003 BUT the myomectomy left tons of scar tissue in my uterus that may have been inhibiting things. ALSO there were new fibroids inside the uterus that were removed in 2002- I got pg 6 months after that surgery. Still worth it. I know others that got pg much sooner after theirs. All of my pgs were natural. I wasn't a candidate for IVF- my RE determined old/bad eggs (even though I have 3 good ones!!)
GOOD LUCK! I think it is worth it if you want kids.
Myomectomy Recovery
Re: Myomectomy Recovery - New Orleans
